A region, defined by an enclosure, (e.g., hotel rooms, offices, laboratories, buildings, cruise ships, airport terminals, and the like) may be decontaminated by exposing the region (and any articles therein) to a vaporous chemical decontaminating agent, such as vaporized hydrogen peroxide. Vaporized hydrogen peroxide may be generated by vaporizing a metered quantity of an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide (e.g., about 30% to 59% hydrogen peroxide, by weight). The vaporized hydrogen peroxide is carried into the region by a carrier gas (e.g., air). As used herein the term “decontamination” refers to the inactivation of bio-contamination, and includes, but is not limited to, sterilization and disinfection.
Some systems for vaporizing an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide include a heated section wherein all the air flowing through the heated section is heated to a predetermined temperature. These systems tend to waste large amounts of heat during the heating process. Furthermore, the rate of air flowing through such systems tends to be limited because large flow rates of air may cool the system thereby making the system ineffective at vaporizing an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide.
To address the foregoing issues, some systems inject the aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide into a stream of heated air. The heated air causes the aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide to vaporize upon injection therein. However, the foregoing evaporation process tends to require relatively large heaters to heat the air. These systems thus tend to require relatively large amounts of power (e.g., 10,000 watts) to generate the vaporized hydrogen peroxide. In addition, when the aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide is injected into the air it is often difficult to prevent the droplets of hydrogen peroxide from contacting the walls of the system and coalescing into a film. Due to the corrosive characteristics of hydrogen peroxide, films of liquid hydrogen peroxide in the system may create a dangerous condition.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned problem and provides an apparatus that effectively and efficiently vaporizes hydrogen peroxide at an ambient air temperature of a region.